I am sure Rakeem already has a debit card from an agent.
The older players have an incredible amount of pressure from family and agents.
Agents want to protect their investment. I’m not suggesting he signed before today. But agents surely have talked to family.
This is a unique year. He’s missed time because of injury and Covid testing. He has had shoulder surgery and assorted leg injuries.
He will get a chance with someone at the next level. Some will back off, but others will take him.
What these players have gone through since March is unusual to say the least. It’s hard to know exactly what made him pull the trigger on this.
But players have to evaluate a lot of things that we will never understand.
I prefer to think the way Alex Collins went out (with an incredible Liberty Bowl and a great final run) is the way to go out. But I don’t know what Rakeem has had to deal with to come back this season when he’d likely gotten at least a chance in an NFL camp last year.
The way the teams dig through a players history and actions to get an insight on their character or some clue for something that could bite them on the backside. I can’t think this would just be considered no big deal. I has to be a red flag if you quit on your team. If thats the only flag maybe its no big deal, but if there are also other considerations like injury prone or some other such thing then the flags will just pile up and it could very well make a difference.
I see three things that probably helped him decide to opt out. 1.He didn’t have the outstanding senior year that he and numerous fans were expecting him to have.2.Covid-19 and it’s constant uncertainties 3. Outside pressures ranging from family? Agents/money. Still yet, walking out with ONLY two games left (probably three with bowl game) is akin to the feces hitting the rotation device before digesting all of the Thanksgiving meal.
Many people look at Arkansas this season and say some of our games should have asterisks beside them because they were stolen by poor officiating. Well…
Rakeem Boyd had some great games and career at Arkansas. I can admit that, but he will forever have an asterisk by his name in my opine because he QUIT on his team at the end. Something no TEAM CAPTAIN worth his salt should ever even consider doing. HE QUIT!! BIG BIG ASTERISK!!
This saddens me. seems like a great kid. Had a standout junior year, despite a terrible team, and that speaks volumes to his self-motivation.
My understanding is that he received word from the NFL that he needs to 1. show he can catch the ball and 2. show durability.
and then he was voted team captain by his teammates.
so far so good, we’re excited about his senior year.
Then came the season. ugh. no highlite runs vs georgia, injured soon at MSU, and came back looking fairly lackluster or unmotivated. maybe it was the injury? Really, aside from a couple runs vs A&M, I don’t think he had a single run that I remember.
And he is again injury prone. And he dropped a huge pass vs auburn. and now he’s quitting with 2 games left in the season. And appears to be the 2nd best tailback on a 3-5 team.
Smith appears to me to run with a true sense of urgency, seems motivated and excited to play.
I’m just sad to watch RB’s last season, and even sadder that he’s quitting with a game or 2 left. I just can’t imagine how he or Jacobs are impressing the NFL by quitting early.
Sad, but man, I really hope this ends well, that maybe he gets a free agent deal and makes a living in the NFL. I’m pulling for him.
Very true, Clay. But using the OP’s definition, Shawn (my bad on the spelling) would be a quitter too. And of course Shawn wasn’t a quitter. One of the all-time greats. “Quitter”’is a pretty harsh thing to say about a football player (Boyd) that could’ve gone to the NFL last year and decided to come back. Especially during this weird year.
My thoughts are that he is not completely healthy, doesn’t think he will get healthy enough to make a good showing the next two games, and decided to take the $ now. I think he would have been better served to stay with the team, play the role on the sideline as the team captain, and just not play because he’s not healthy. We’re only talking a couple of weeks so the money could have waited until the end of the season. It was a short term decision that’s going to cost him long term, imvho.
I saw this coming. Boyd has been hurt. Then he comes back and is not especially effective. Then he is quarantined. He probably was told (and this is a guess ) that he would not start against Missouri due to lack of practice time. Then there are the factors Clay mentioned. Agents and money. It all adds up to quitting. with two games left.
With only 2 games left it isn’t “opt out” it is “walked out” and quit as a CAPTAIN of my team! I am with RD in that I don’t feel this helps him any nor does it look good in the eyes of some in the NFL.
Nothing ever surprises me any more, but it sure is disappointing. He is extremely talented. He made poor (academic) decisions at A&M to cost him his SEC chance there. This decision is equally poor.
I’m not mad at him, and as started previously, I kind of expected it. This year hasn’t gone as planned for him due to additional injuries and covid, and his draft stock wasn’t improving, but this kid does have a future in the league. Lately, NFL teams have no problem picking guys that miss meaningful bowl games and whole seasons to prepare for the draft, someone will take a flyer on him. So when does he start getting healthy and working out to prepare for the draft? Selfishly, I would’ve loved for him to play the last 2 games and rush for 350-400 yds with an additional 100 in receiving, (both victories )but that isn’t going to happen now.
A similar situation happened to someone close to me. He played baseball and injured his shoulder during his senior season. I told him to end his season and have shoulder surgery, but he chose to get pain shots and play the rest of the year for his team. He made it thru the rest of the season, but could only do a minimal rehab due to the short time between the end of the baseball season and the draft. Although he didn’t get drafted, he had an excellent opportunity to get in the White Sox organization through playing independent league ball. Unfortunately, he tore up the same shoulder in the 2nd practice and had to give up his professional dreams. He always regrets not having the surgery in college.
I thank Boyd and wish him well as his future success will be a positive for the Razorbacks.
There is one in my mind. I can never hear his name without thinking he bailed out on the bowl game. I even thought about it when I was writing the Boyd stuff.
Maybe I’m just too old school. My word is my bond. I’ll have someones back until the bitter end. And to add another clique… in for a penny in for a pound. No way I leave.
Its one thing when your actions cause you to let yourself down, because we all sometimes set impossible standards we just can’t reach. But it is an entirely different thing when you let someone else down that perhaps has been helping you achieve or attempt to achieve your goals and just tell them… “go on without me, I got bigger fish to fry… your on your own.”
)but that isn’t going to happen now.